Moldova will pay more than double for Russian gas from April. European companies will apparently continue to be able to pay their Russian gas bills in euros.
According to information from Berlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin assured German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that European companies can continue to pay their Russian gas bills in euros. In a phone call on Wednesday, Putin said gas deliveries would have to be paid for in rubles from April 1, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit explained. “At the same time, he emphasized in the conversation that nothing would change for the European contractual partners.”
Payments must therefore continue to be transferred exclusively in euros to Banco Gazprom, which is not affected by sanctions. “The bank then converts the money into rubles,” Hebestreit said, quoting the Russian head of state. Putin declared last week that in future only rubles would be accepted as payment for gas deliveries to “hostile” countries. This includes all EU countries. G7 countries, among others, rejected the announcement as “unacceptable” and urged their companies not to comply with the Russian demand.
Scholz did not agree with the procedure now explained by Putin, explained Hebestreit. The chancellor “only asked for written information to better understand the procedure”. The G7 agreement remains in effect: “Energy deliveries are paid exclusively in euros or dollars. As stipulated in the contracts”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had previously announced that the switch to the payments system would only take place gradually. On Thursday, the Russian government, the country’s central bank, which is subject to Western sanctions, and Russian energy giant Gazprom want to present their plans to implement the measure.
Moldova will pay double from April
According to Moldova, as of April 1, it will pay Russia’s Gazprom between US$1,160 and US$1,170 per 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas. This is the provisional price, said the head of energy company Moldovagaz, Wadim Ceban. In March, the state-owned company paid US$ 547.
Moldova has had a dispute with the government in Moscow over gas prices in the past. Last year, Gazprom threatened to stop deliveries if demands were not met. Like Ukraine and Georgia, Moldova is a former Soviet republic where separatists, with Moscow’s support, want to break with the state. In the case of Moldova, which lies between Romania and Ukraine but does not share a border with Russia, the breakaway region of Transnistria is at stake.
(APA/AFP/Reuters)